One-Third of Video Game Workers Laid Off in 2025

One-third of U.S. video game trade staff say they had been laid off last yr, according to a new survey carried out by the organizers behind the newly revamped Game Developers Conference (GDC).

Based on responses from more than 2,300 gaming trade professionals, with surveys “customized for each participant group, ensuring that developers, marketers, executives, investors and others answered questions most relevant to them,” the 2026 State of the Game Industry Report discovered that 33% of respondents in the U.S. had been laid off in the past two years.

That stat reduces to twenty-eight% when trying on a global scale. Half of those surveyed reported their current or most current employer has carried out layoffs in the past 12 months.

Per the report, “Those at AAA studios were highly likely to have experienced layoffs at their companies; two-thirds of respondents at AAA studios said their companies had layoffs. One-third of people working at indie studios reported the same.”

The team also surveyed a smaller group of game educators and college students to seize a snapshot of the challenges going through the next era.

The report, which could be downloaded without cost right here, gives the latest data and analysis on layoffs, generative AI adoption and sentiment, unionization efforts, development platforms and priorities, enterprise pressures, rising developments and more. Key insights from the report are below.

The survey also discovered that 82% of US-based respondents help the unionization of game trade staff, with 5% opposed and 13% uncertain. According to the outcomes, “Support was higher among workers earning under $200,000 per year (87%), those who have been laid off in the past two years (88%) and people younger than 45 (86%). No respondents aged 18-24 were opposed to unionization.”

The release of the new State of the Industry report comes ahead of the GDC Festival of Gaming, which is able to run March 9-13 in San Fransisco. This yr, the organizers behind the Game Developers Conference (GDC) have reworked the event into the renamed pageant that will deal with a bigger portion of the gaming trade with further tracks of programming.